I received my new XPS 8100 a few days ago, and I would like to replace its hard drive (I planned on doing it before I ordered the XPS system). I would like to replace it with Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB, but while I have cloned drives in the past and generally familiar with the procedure, I have never cloned a Dell's drive. As you can see from the attachment below, it has 3 partitions (two of which seem to be hidden), I would like to preserve these partitions because they provide an easy way to restore the system to its original Dell's configuration, but I do not know how to do that. I am thinking of using Acronis True Image, is that a good idea?

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, in WD CB 2TB review on this site (Conclusion section), it says in part:

Quote:

In fact, if you portioned off the first 200GB or so of the Black 2TB the resulting “C Drive” would be a force to be reckoned with even against SSDs.

What does it mean? Is it an actual recommendation to partition the drive as described for the purpose of installing Windows 7 on the 200 GB partition?

I figured it out. I have tried a number of different cloning software programs, but Clonezilla (which is free) is the only one that worked. Others worked too but the Dell's recovery partition was unusable.